Welcome to the Forum Archive!

Years of conversation fill a ton of digital pages, and we've kept all of it accessible to browse or copy over. Whether you're looking for reveal articles for older champions, or the first time that Rammus rolled into an "OK" thread, or anything in between, you can find it here. When you're finished, check out the boards to join in the latest League of Legends discussions.

Basics and More!

To become solid in LoL or DotA, it requires much the same skill set. For those of you who don't know DotA very well or at all, here are some of the things you may not know about.

#1 Communication

* This is a set of skills that many never really work on. They are happy to be led around and that's good enough. Usually these people can only get "good" by having friends who are good or just lead them completely.

1-1. Just talk. Seriously, if you don't know what you're doing, or think someone else might have a better idea, just say so and ask what you should do.

1-2. When someone in your lane disappears for like 4-8 seconds, at least, call them "mia."

1-3. When you're leaving a lane that a friend is also in, or leave a team battle, tell everyone that you're leaving. At least when you aren't running for your very life! =P

1-4. Vent. Use it, if you can. If not, it's not all-important, it just helps a lot.

1-5. If someone does something that screws you over, like doesn't help when you're fighting someone when they easily could, say something! Maybe THEY are new, too!

#2 Awareness

* This set of skills is second only to communication. You will probably become more aware before you really figure out how to communicate. Awareness will help you survive and do well by yourself. When mixed with good communication, knowledge of the game, and just general skill you might just become pro.

2-1. Watch the minimap. Remember to note at the beginning of the game that there are five enemies on the map (if there aren't and there's no one in your lane, the one or ones meant to be in your lane might be planning something obnoxious). Keep looking at the map and seeing if anyone is missing, especially if no one on your team is communicating well. Remember, when a lot of enemies go missing, back up, don't assume they aren't coming for YOU.

2-2. Take note of the enemy's skills. If they have something that seems to hit creeps OR you, try to keep your creeps between yourself and them. If they have a nuke or slow or stun, keep it in mind because those are keys to winning or losing a fight.

2-3. If and when you can get Flash, do so. It's awesome. If you don't like it much, at least get Boost. Boost is also awesome, since it gets you out of stuns. Clairvoyance is also a really good option, remember to put the wards in places that will give you a heads-up when a gank is coming.

2-4. Remember to keep an eye on chat. Very important things go on there, like communication.

2-5. As in 2-2 start trying to take note of which people have which summoner skills, it will come in quite handy. Knowing someone does or doesn't have flash or boost can win you a fight. Also, if you see 2-3 or more people with Smite on the enemy team, they might be planning to go kill the Dragon before they come to lanes.

2-6. Take the time to test out your skills. Using a little mana won't hurt you. Yeah, you might die in trying it, but you've gotta figure it out somehow, right?

2-7. Don't cross the river alone. This has exceptions, but follow this rule until you're sure you can tell when it's safe to cross the river alone.

2-8. Target the most aggressive/dangerous enemy Champion in your lane. This puts their mana, hp and other stats at the top of your screen, to keep you informed!

2-9. Fighting 1-on-1, especially early in your career, is probably a bad plan. If they've been passive for most of the game and suddenly become aggressive, they probably have a plan/help coming. Just avoid 1-on-1s early and wait for help, or a "gank."

2-10. Play every Champion. Once you've played at least most of them you will understand what they can do and better understand how to fight them (you may learn how to fight some simply by playing against them so much, but don't count on it).

2-11. At the beginning of the game it is very common for people to hide in the brush or in the river and come out suddenly to gank you. Be prepared for this, it is a very frustrating thing for a noob to deal with!

#3 Basic Skills

* These skills are not basic in the sense that they are necessarily simple. These skills are simply the foundation of becoming a good player. You don't necessarily need these before communication or awareness, but you DO need these before you can ever really become great. Or so I would argue.

3-1. Last hitting. This is pretty basic to the game and fairly important. Try to get the very last hit on an enemy creep before it dies, so you get extra money.

3-2. Juking is something that you can only really do in certain situations, but it involves thinking outside of the box. When someone is chasing you, sometimes going a very different direction than what is quickest to safety will keep you alive. Even walking back towards them after turning a corner!

- It's also important to know that others can juke. Clairvoyance, the summoner skill, can make it extremely tough for the enemy to juke. Use those wards well!

3-3. MOVE! Keep moving. Constantly. There are a lot of skills that have to be aimed at you and take time to get there. If you are on the move they are tougher to aim, and you're already on the move so you'll respond faster. If you don't want to constantly move, then just ALWAYS be ready to.

3-4. Using Flash and similar skills can be much tougher than you might realize. Just because you can Flash away, doesn't mean they won't kill you. You have to try to use the terrain to your advantage. Flash over trees, or over the ledge in the river. If you can't do that, simply flash normally.

3-5. Take note of where the enemy has wards placed. If you are going to gank and walk past an enemy ward (it'll have a red life bar), abort the gank immediately unless you are SURE the others on the enemy team aren't coming to counter you.

3-6. Neutrals. They give buffs. Many of these buffs are very helpful. The biggest one is the Nashor buff, which can make you win a team battle with little effort. Do not take these buffs lightly, they really can make a huge difference.

3-7. Champion selection. Generally, you want to assume that the enemy team isn't going to be a bunch of idiots/noobs. Try to pick teams that have a decent amount of synergy. Stuns are awesome. Pile AoE on top of AoE. These two also mix together. Amumu ult + Nunu ult/Fiddlesticks ult/Morgana ult/Cryophoenix ult (you get the picture) = win. There are many other types of combos that are much more complicated to explain, learn them. Have fun!

3-8. Choosing Summoner skills. Flash and Boost are amazing for both offense and defense. These are often good options. Smite is great for melee Champions, helping them try to keep up with ranged dps. Try to pick skills that work well on your particular Champion. I often pick Boost on tanks because I always end up stunned and, as the tank, I really need to NOT be stunned. Also, think of your playstyle, do you like knowing what's going on around you, or being able to get away or get in with ease?

3-9. QWER are your skills. R is your ult, so if someone is telling you to "R them!" they want you to ult. 12345 are your items, consumables can be used this way. To ping on the map, press g. This is helpful for calling attention to things. Be careful in reading pings, sometimes they are meant to warn you away, not towards the ping!

3-10. A few notable skill-types to learn to dodge:

* There are some skills that are fired in a straight line from the hero. These skills are best dodged by moving left/right NOT up/down. (Karthus, Cryophoenix, Amumu, etc.)

* Also, there are some skills that will hit creeps and not just Champions (Ashe's volley, Amumu's bandage, etc.). Against these skills try to keep creeps between you and them, but don't ASSUME you are safe because you are behind creeps.

* There are two Champions that NEED to fight you alone (as in not with creeps around) to be most effective. These are Ryze and Evelynn. The best way to combat them is often to stay near creeps. Once again, don't assume you are safe if you are near creeps, though.

#4 Advanced Tips

* I'm slowly compiling some Advanced Tips (by advanced I don't mean "pro" tips, just tips for the step after becoming a non-noob).

- If you are solo in a lane against two opponents, play defensively. Stay alive and keep your tower as unhurt as possible.

- If you are against someone who is soloing and you have an ally, play aggressively. Push him away from creeps so he doesn't get exp and GET THAT TOWER!

- If there is a stalemate, you can find an advantage by killing neutrals while the enemy is hiding in base.

- Take down squishies first, if you can.

- Keep track of the items your enemies have and are building towards (most likely). Knowledge is power.

- Much like the previous note, USE THE TEAM INFO SCREEN. You access this by pressing "o" or "Tab." It shows their summoner spells. KNOW the summoner spells of AT LEAST the people in your lane. It helps a lot.

#4-1/2 Camera Settings (And more)

* If you are in free camera mode, you can HOLD down spacebar for a temporary lock camera w/o the need to toggle the lock on/off

* You can continually move in a driving/steering fashion by holding down the Left mouse button

* Pressing Y can lock or unlock your camera on your Champion.

* Pressing spacebar will bring you to your Champion, remember this if you lose them!

* Holding Alt and clicking will tell Tibbers where to go without having to move Annie as well! (omg awesome, this also applies to ANY controllable summoned units like Shaco's image)

* Pressing F12 during the game will take screenshots. They will be in your Riot Games folder.

* Pressing "L" will cycle through showing lifebars over the heads of Champs and Minions. You may have to press it a few times to cycle back to having lifebars over peoples' heads, fair warning.

* Pressing "O" or "Tab" will open the team info screen. You can see Minion kills on here to see how you are doing in the lane and you can also see summoner spells on this screen (THIS IS EXTREMELY USEFUL, USE IT)

* Pressing "P" will open your shop. This can be useful for checking prices while out of base and for when you are dead.

This is just to help you make e-friends and not royally piss anyone off. I'm not saying that you have to be super nice or anything, though it probably wouldn't kill ya :P.

* Ping once. It is enough. Even better, type something to clarify the ping. Two pings is also sometimes necessary, but I've rarely ever seen a need for three successive ones. They really are loud and irritating when spammed.

* Call MIA (missing in action) and try to give at least an abbreviation of the Champ who is missing so people know what they're up against.

* If someone is doing something you don't like or that you think is hurting the team, speak up, but don't be rude. If they get rude or disrespectful, ask them to stop. After the game, if the person was just taking it too far, right click their name in the post-game chat and click "Report Player." Riot really does act on those reports.

*** Please, feel free to post things you'd like me to add, remove, give credit for, anything! I want this to grow until a better resource comes along, or I get bored of updating it! =P ***

Very helpful thread to all of the new people. Also my Fiddlesticks guide is fairly out-dated, as it was built for a previous meta-game. I would reccomend linking http://beta.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2619 instead, as it is much more current.